Sunday, 23 October 2011

Healthy Fudge with a Wicked Alias

All year long it is a workhorse - packing a powerhouse of nutritious ingredients into an appealing, simple-to-make treat.

Totally fools the eye.

It can be made with any combination or variety of nuts and seeds. Measure out a few ingredients, stir it up in a pot, and it's ready to eat in a short time.

I'm not sure where I got the original recipe. It's handwritten on a splattered and well-thumbed page in my old hard-covered lab notebook that houses my collection of tried-and-true recipes. Its source is unknown. I may have copied it from a magazine or a pamphlet, or gotten it from someone I once knew but have now forgotten. I cannot remember. But I have made it many times and only altered it slightly over the years.

It is headed with the unpretentious title of Health Fudge in my book, but I like the title Birdseed Fudge, or Seed Fudge better, or maybe even Eat More Fudge, because it tastes to me like an Eatmore Bar. You can call it whatever you like. It always turns out and is indestructible to transport. It is naturally gluten free. And it's very yummy.

Where the double life come in (and it is a deep, dark, wicked one), is in its shape-shifting abilities. This fudge, all year long, cuts beautifully into perfectly square, neat and tidy little fudge-like cubes.

EXCEPT at Halloween.

Then, with a little bit of creative, play-dough wrangling expertise - and for a short time only - it becomes pumpkin poop.

Yep. Pumpkin Poop.

That is what this lovely fudge turns into around Halloween.

Please don't judge it for its deep, dark side. It really cannot help itself. And it behaves perfectly all the rest of the year. I promise.

You can make this fudge with any combination of seeds and nuts you have on hand. Have no pumpkin seeds? Use 1 cup sunflower seeds instead. No walnuts? Use pecans, cashews or peanuts. Like coconut? Use all coconut. Maybe try almond butter or sunflower butter. Play around - just keep the proportions of seeds, nuts and raisins to a total of 3 cups.

In a large saucepan, heat honey and peanut butter, stirring constantly just until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in carob powder. Mix well.

Dump in nut and seed mixture and stir until evenly mixed.

Mixture will be quite stiff.

Press into a greased 9x9" pan. Use your fingers or the back of a spoon to pat it down. Chill several hours or overnight.

Cut into 1"(2.5cm) squares. I tip the pan onto a cutting board and carefully pry the slab of fudge out in one piece. Then it is easy to cut.

Store in the refrigerator. Keeps for several weeks (if it lasts that long).

Makes 2 1/2 lbs. of fudge (that's over 1 kg.)

Pumpkin Poop

Make above recipe for Health Fudge.

(You could pat half the recipe into a pan for the adults to eat, and prepare the other half of the mixture as follows.)

Instead of pressing the mixture into a pan, let it cool until it is warm enough to handle. Pinch off small turd-sized (sorry, there's no better way to describe that) chunks, and mold, pinch or shape them into appropriately realistic little logs or plops of pumpkin poop.

You will have no trouble enlisting the help of willing little hands to complete this offensive and disgusting task. (Though I can't promise they will as eagerly eat the end results, if they look too realistic.)